


Late in the Library

by DontDrinkColdCoffee



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-02
Updated: 2012-12-02
Packaged: 2017-11-20 02:58:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/580545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DontDrinkColdCoffee/pseuds/DontDrinkColdCoffee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Slash AU. Arthur is not really pleased when his father forces him to work "voluntarily" in a library, to gain some respect for "common work". Or rather not pleased at all. But then again, there is something about this co-worker of his Arthur can't quite put his finger on...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Late in the Library

**Author's Note:**

> Hello my lovelies!  
> Now that I've finallyfinallyfinally got my account at AO3, I'm not sure what to do with my ff.net account anymore, but decided to move my first story on here, in the hopes that you like it.  
> It's inspired by and written during a work experience of mine, although I unfortunately didn't meet someone like Merlin. *sigh*  
> This is very fluffy, contains non-magical magic and an awful lot of run.. uh, racing.  
> If you can live with that, I hope you'll enjoy the story :)

„OI!“

  
Arthur looked up from the book he was momentarily studying, firstly, because no one had ever called „oi“ after him since primary school – because really, who would and could ever mess with him? - and secondly, because he could obviously be the only person this was dedicated to, as the library he was currently standing in was eerily empty.

Well, empty of people, but the lack of them was compensated with a sheer unbearable amount of books, stapled and stocked in shelves so high, he wasn't sure whether they were meeting and merging together somewhere up in the air or he just couldn't see the ceiling. To be honest, since he entered this small door in a small, colourful street in the middle of London, to climb down weeny winding corkscrew stairs and end up in a quiet hall put full with lots and loads of ridiculously vertiginous racks with books and no transparent system they were sorted after, he felt a bit like stuck in the Disney movie “The Beauty and the Beast”, and was just waiting for a gorgeous creature like Belle to show up around the corner.

  
“What do you think you're doing?”

Instead he saw a slender figure appearing on the top of travelling ladder racing towards him. Slightly startled he dropped the book he was going through and jumped out of the way as the ladder came to a sudden stop inches from his toes and a young man with dark curly hair and impressive big ears hurriedly climbed down the stairs, fetched the book and glared at him with his big blue eyes.

  
Arthur raised his hands.

“Sorry.”, he mumbled. He wasn't used to apologise.

  
“Didn't mean to interrupt or, or...”

  
“How many books have you taken?”

  
“Uh... one.”

  
Arthur scratched the back of his head.

  
“Oh, thank god, otherwise you could have spoiled the order!”

  
The scrawny young man – he was younger than Arthur, this much was true, he just couldn't tell how much – flicked hectically through the sites and placed the book back at it's former spot.

  
“Yeah... the order...”

  
Arthur couldn't suppress a cough. He was brought up to act polite, but Arthur thought the term “order” for this collection of randomly stacked books a little ridiculous.

The librarian (?) rose an eyebrow at him, then shook his head, smiled but looked away, and asked: “I'm Merlin. Can I help you?”

  
Arthur gave a quick nod and peeled a little note from his pocket.

  
“Err, my father said this library would belong to an old friend of his”, he eyed Merlin suspiciously without him noticing, “and that he would own a few books which aren't to be receivable around Britain any more, and I was sent to fetch them, because I would need them for my, err, studies.”

  
Arthur hardly believed he would need any of this utterly ancient, nearly falling-apart tomes for his degree in economics, but his father had insisted he would pay this place a visit.  
Merlin nervously took the note and tried to decipher Arthur's illegible dreadful scrawl.

  
“Who's your father then?”, he asked as he signified Arthur with a gesture to follow him.

  
“Uther Pendragon, if that means something to you...”

  
Merlin's eyebrows shot-up right under his small fringe.

  
“So you're Arthur then?”, he smiled.

  
“Yes...”, answered Arthur, irritated.

  
He wasn't prepared to be recognised in a place like this, more so by a person he had never even seen before and was highly unlikely to have heard of him. Merlin didn't seem like the person to read economical magazines or the “Financial Times” and would therefore know about the family empire “Pendragon Corporation” his father had built over the years and Arthur was destined to get on with. Or this was again one of the ventures prepared bis his father – he had sent him there, at last – who had just forgotten to tell him eventually, as usual, much to Arthur's discomfort.  
He didn't like being the only oblivious person to everything that was going on.

  
Anyway, Merlin's face brightened and he added: “Then we must head this way. Gaius was going on about you being likely to turn up here one day for ages, and now that you've come, he might as well instruct you himself.”

  
“Instruct me?”, Arthur asked, and now it was his turn to shoot his eyebrows up.

  
What was meant by all of this? What should he be instructed to? And why did Merlin just deliberately drop his note on the floor?  
Unfortunately, Arthur was the only oblivious to what was going on. Again.

* * *

Merlin pulled him towards a creaky wooden door – Arthur wondered whether there was anything down here which was not at least medieval, or just not made of wood – banged and crowed “Gaius? Arthur's here!” but didn't bother waiting for an answer and just flopped in.

  
Hesitant, Arthur entered the... bureau, you may call it, right behind. Or let's say the room with several desks of various design, stacked with paper and alchemistic material, plus one with a computer that looked like it belonged to an entire other century, let alone world. It might as all have been a typewriter, Arthur wasn't sure if he could tell properly through the books and mugs stapled all around it.

  
At one of the desks right in the corner of his eye rose an even older – if that was still possible – elder from his seat and eyed him suspiciously from top to toe, until he finally widened his arms and exclaimed: “Arthur! So good old Uther finally decided to sent you here. Well, welcome then!”, and pulled him into a hug.

Arthur had never seen this man in his whole life, and still he seemed to be quite close to his father. Arthur couldn't remember one of his father's friends – if there was even one person you could call that – who would refer to him as “good old Uther”. And he was hugging him right now. Arthur clapped the old man on the back.

  
“Well, yes. I shall collect some books he insisted I'd need for my...”

  
“Ohh, yes, that can wait.”

  
Gaius winked at him conspiratorially and Arthur couldn't get rid of the feeling he was missing a point. A huge, massive big point.

  
“So... What am I to do here?”

Wrong question. Terribly wrong question.

  
“Well, as far as I'm informed you ought to work here for a full of four weeks to gain some experience in 'common work', if I'm quoting your father right.”

  
Now it was Arthur's turn to blink. But not in the least conspiratorially.

  
He should work? In an unknown library under the streets of London, where never ever anybody showed up save for a geeky boy with a dinky grin and an elder man who looked like he might as well lived there.  
If he'd seen this scene in a film, he probably would have laughed at the look of his face right now, but given the circumstances, he wasn't sure of it's appropriation and was rather frightened the old man could be serious.  
Because even though he greeted him so heartily, he really didn't looked like somebody you'd mess with. Or who messed with others.

  
“Work? Here? I mean...” The idea hadn't hit his system quite yet. If this wasn't a joke, then... “I, I mean... what am I even supposed to do here?”

  
“Oh, there's plenty to do in a library, you wouldn't consider. But for one point, now is not the time for that. You will begin tomorrow...”

  
Gaius' last sentence accelerated Arthur's thoughts 'til they hit a very dead end. This conversation was heading in a really wrong direction, because he hadn't even tried to take it as a joke. Damnit.

  
“But this can't be right! Either you're mistaking me - “

  
“But you are Arthur Pendragon, Uther Pendragon's son and heir to 'Pendragon Corporation', living in Camelot Gardens, street...”

  
Creepy old man, stop him.

  
“Okay, so you may not have mistaken me, but either way, I can't work here. I've got to study, I will have exams in a few months, and if I don't excel them, I'm not sure if my father'd let me continue his work.”

  
Gaius smiled knowingly. It was always the same with the youngsters.

  
“He severely insisted on you working here, he said you being able to respect simple work is far more important to him than any exam or degree you might take. He said he had to work for all of his goals, and now he's afraid of you getting your head stuck to far up because you knew all along you'd be leader of “Pendragon Corporation” one day, if only you'd accomplish his goals. And now he's afraid they were too small, and you wouldn't be able to understand how easy your way of life is in comparison to others', who might work harder than you just to have something to eat everyday. But that's just my guess, he could also have completely different reasons of sending you here.”

  
“But...But I know this! I know I've had fairly good luck with my family and standards, but please, working here? What for? This work hasn't got anything to do with my later duties and I have courses to attend to tomorrow! I...”, would have got on with his tirade, hadn't Gaius just said:

  
“As does Merlin. And you see, he still manages to show up here.”

Arthur glared at Merlin who was currently examining an old book with a magnifier, as if he were to blame for the obvious injustice he was thrown in. Merlin just smiled back and shrugged slightly, as if to say: “I'm sorry, mate, I know this sucks. But this can be fun, you know?”

  
Arthur sighed exasperated and turned back to Gaius.

  
“When do I have to show up? I need to know if I can manage it with my courses.”

  
 _Whoa. Why did I accepted my destiny that fast? That's creepy. I don't want to show up anywhere. I won't..._ Arthur's thoughts lost themselves.

  
“I don't care when you show up, I just want you to work five hours a day, not more, not less, and between 9 am and 10 pm, you're completely free to start and end any time, if you just got your five hours at the end of the day.”

  
Gaius smiled assuringly and Arthur smiled back, a little stiff at last, but a smile at least.

  
“Well. Thanks.”, he managed, before he turned towards the door, nodded at Merlin and emerged back into the library.

  
One second later he stuck his head back to the office and asked: “And, uh... The books were just an excuse to drag me here right? I don't actually have to take anything with me, do I?”

  
Gaius pointed with his index finger at him.

  
“Smart lad. Very well done.”

  
Arthur nodded and made sure to leave as quick as possible.

* * *

“To be able to respect 'common work'? Really? Where does that even come from?”

  
Over the last half hour Arthur had thoroughly ruffled his hair within an heated argument between him and his Father on the phone.

  
“I study, I've gone through a buck load of work experiences, I already know every little office boy by first and surname, I try to read the paper as often as possible and have attended to some meetings in your place, why don't you think this is enough? Why do I have to “work” in a bloody library to be able to do your job? What's the point? And who is this Gaius? You never mentioned him before!”

  
Uther sighed for what felt like the thousandth time.

  
“Arthur. Gaius is an old friend of mine, we met at said library when I was a young and inquisitive student. He was the first real friend I've known in all my life, and the last one to stay and be sure of as such after I made it to success. It's hard to know right from wrong in this world, Arthur. You may have experienced...”

  
“Yes, father, please don't dwell on your insecurities, I want to know why. I have. To work. There.”

  
Arthur was exasperated and played with the thought of just not going.

  
“Because I. Say. So.”, his father seemed exasperated as well,  
“And you better do your best at it, because you are very well informed that I even have contacts to your professors! And I know you want to work for “Pendragon Corporation”, it is the legend you grow up to and the destiny you'd like to fulfill when the time has come.”

  
Arthur rolled his eyes.

  
“Could you sound any more pathetic?”

  
“You will work at Gaius' library, four week from tomorrow, no arguing. Have I made myself clear? Yes? Yes.”

  
And with that, the line was broken and left a disheveled Arthur on the couch, ruffling his hair because he had no clue how to actually manage it.

It's not that Arthur even wanted, or liked to study. At high school, everybody started to question what they wanted to do with their lives and picked their uni courses after these choices, but for Arthur it had been very clear – like it always had been – that he would work, that he would have to want to work at “Pendragon Corporations”, and that his father would know very well where to study what would be best.

So he completely left that decision to him and concentrated on... other things. Football with his friends. Video Games. Booze. Girls. Well, Boys too. The list could go on for a while, so let's just say “the finer things in life, when you don't have to worry about eventual homework”.

So when he actually went to college, he first went to live there, but as soon as he recognised he didn't liked it even the tiniest bit – or he didn't liked his roomie the tiniest bit (or he him, where was the difference?) - he moved to his own flat as fast as possible. It was sort of a birthday present. Uther never made bones about how he proud he was of his only son, and that he would do anything to make him happy.

  
That was one of the points Arthur couldn't understand when he entered the small door to the library right after lunch the next day. His courses had been in the morning, and usually he would have a nice footie match with his friends that would lead to some ale in his favourite pub right now, but no. He climbed down the same corkscrew stairs and nearly fell of this time.

  
“Yup, the steps aren't made for human feet at all. But I promise, you'll get used to it.”, said the nearest stack of books to him.

  
Arthur blinked in confusion. Statistics today had been exhausting, but he hadn't known quite how exhausted he really was. Then he realised the legs beneath the stack and retained some books of it's top so Merlin's grin and his could show up instead.

  
“Thanks mate”, he managed and dropped the stack at the end of the next shelf row, so Arthur did the same.

  
Then Merlin began sorting them and suggested: “You may say hello to Gaius, he'll give you something to do. Doesn't seem like, but there's plenty, believe me.”  
Arthur nodded and headed to the office of doom. (That's how he decided to call it in the future.)

  
He didn't know why or how, but he felt that he liked Merlin. Okay, the only interaction they had yet, was some yelling about books and some small talk about stairs, but Merlin didn't seem to be as boring as his job at all. Quite the contrary, there was something about him Arthur longed to know better, but couldn't really say what it was. Tricky situation.

Gaius greeted him sincere like the day before and then ordered him at a desk to sort some books.

  
Arthur raised a brow – he didn't saw any kind of order yesterday – but started to sort them by the surname of the author nevertheless. Now and then Merlin would drop in to take some of the sorted books, but never without a comment like “You're doing great, keep on.”, muttered under his breath so that only Arthur could hear it.

  
He wasn't sure if it was sarcasm or some funny sort of comfort Merlin liked to give, but it made Arthur smile nonetheless and he began to wish for some work to do together with Merlin, to may be able to chat to him properly.

  
When he finished sorting the books, Merlin just dropped in to collect them and Gaius cut in:

“Merlin, would you be so nice to take Arthur with you and show him how to sort the books into the shelves?”

  
“Yes sir!”, Merlin stated and waved Arthur with him.

  
I'm not a retard, I should be able to sort books into shelves... Well, if I could finally detect a proper system of sorting, that is., Arthur thought to himself as he followed Merlin through endless rows of shelves until Merlin stopped and handed him some books.

  
“Here... flip them open on page thirty and tell me the fifth word.”

  
Arthur blinked a few times. He slowly got the feeling he blinked more often in the last two days than in his entire life before.

  
“I shall... What?”

  
Merlin sighed but grinned at him.

  
“Oh, don't get mad. But the system they're sorted after is rather different from the systems you may know. You know we could sort them by the name of the author, or by the title, or then year of publication, or even colour, but, well... That's boring. So I decided to sort them by certain words on certain sites. See, for this shelf it's page 30 word five, for the shelf in front of it it's page 30 word four, and behind it's page 30 word six. Get the idea? I thought so. Well...”

  
Arthur shook his head. Violently shook his had. The little nerd in front of him may looked cute when he explained something, but that didn't made what he explained any more sensible.

  
“Okay. Now you look at me like I'm mad. Which, I promise, I'm not. It's just...”

  
“You got a bit over-creative about organizing books?”, Arthur offered, “Yeah, probably. And you really wonder why you don't get any customers?”

  
Merlin smiled.

  
“Ohh, that's not important, the government usually pays for libraries, and if that doesn't do it from time to time, we still got your dad.”

  
“So you're telling me that my dad is actually sort of paying your salary?”

  
Merlin shrugged, likely ignoring the fact that Arthur's eyes currently tried to emerge form his head.

  
“Wel... yes? Is that a problem?”

  
And he smiled to Arthur so whimsically and apologising at the same time, Arthur was certain he'd never seen anything like it before. Which was highly unlikely, because even Arthur had stopped counting the girls hitting on him. Wait, was Merlin trying to hit on him? No, no context. Well. Was there?

  
“No, no, why should it be? It's his money, after all, and if he likes to pay for...”, he made a certain gesture with his hand and then placed it reassuringly on Merlin's shoulder, “... weirdly sorted libraries then it's all...fine.”

  
He squeezed a little.

  
Then their eyes met and they burst into laughter.

  
When his breath steadied again, he lent against a shelf and asked, “No, but for real this time, do you honestly sort the books like that?”

  
Merlin blushed a little.

  
“Uhm... maybe?”

  
Arthur rolled his eyes.

  
“You know, when the answers yes, you may dare to say so as well. Heck, it doesn't matter how you sort it, does it? Who would ever read this books, really?”  
He grabbed the first on the staple.

  
“Mandragoras and the finer arts to analyse them.”, he chuckled, “I wonder how the old professors reading this look like. Probably all old and hunched and with white beards flowing all around, which are long enough for them to throw over their shoulders and wrap them five times around their waist or so. Which is actually...”, he stopped rambling as he noticed Merlin's blush deepen.

  
“Oh please, Merlin, don't tell me you...”

  
“It's actually quite interesting, and my chemistry tutor practically insisted on it and...”

  
Merlin avoided his surprised glance when he snapped after the book, bur Arthur pulled it away.

  
“Oh, come on, give it to me.”, Merlin whined.

  
“So little nerdy Merlin can further study boring old sciences in the library of dodgyness?”, Arthur pouted, “Nah, I don't think so. I think he has to fetch it first.”  
And with that, they started what should be storied later as “The Great Library Race of utter Childishness”, which wound up in Arthur barging into a shelf and therefore triggering an unhealthy amount of books to drop on his head.

  
Which looks a lot more fun in films and series than it is experiencing in reality. Merlin rushed the last few steps he had to catch Arthur eventually – he had just been to fast for him – towards him.

  
“Are you alright?”

  
He knelt down beside his head.

  
“Ahwnnn.”, was the only noise that leaked from Arthur's mouth as he tried to sit himself up.

  
“Hey, careful there!”, smoothed Merlin and guided his head against the next shelf so Arthur could sit properly.

  
Arthur pressed his heel of the hand against his eyes and moaned a bit more. His head hurt really bad.

  
“Oh, no, please, stay conscious!”, begged Merlin, took his hand away and lightly stroked his head.

  
Much to Arthur's surprise, the headache and the tipsy-drowsy feeling gradually oozed out of his brain and he was able to open his eyes again. Merlin's face was only inches away, wearing a worried expression and examining his eyes slowly.

  
“Is it better? Arthur? Can you hear me?”

  
Arthur could feel Merlin's breath on his lips and chin as he spoke, and how the light moisture of his breath settled down there. When was the last time somebody had been that close to him? Arthur couldn't remember. And when he blinked in those big baby-blues, he wasn't sure he ever wanted to.

  
“Oh shit, you've got a concussion! I better get Gaius, he'll know what to do with you.”

  
Merlin started to press himself up in an upright position again, when Arthur's hand shot up like on reflex and firmly grabbed his forearms.

  
“No, it's alright. I'm... I'm okay, just a bit dizzy, that's all. I don't want you to get into trouble, it's still my fault after all.”

  
Merlin gave him a look of such an intensity, that seemed to scream “No it isn't in the slightest! If only you'd know...” until Arthur blinked a few times more and managed to get up again. Merlin still eyed him suspiciously as if he was likely to pass out every second and hit the rack again.

  
“Soo... Who's to sort this mess now?”, he asked and pointed towards the bunch of books spread across the floor and look suggestively at Merlin.

  
“Ohh, no, that's totally your job. You're able to stand, you're able to sort.”

  
Merlin clapped him on the shoulder. Arthur groaned a little and when he lent down to grab the first book, Merlin whispered in his ear:  
“When you're ready tomorrow and a little less concussed, I'll show you a way more fun activity to do down here.”

  
And with a wink he was gone to his own book pile.

* * *

The next day, Arthur decided to head early to the library, mostly because he had courses in the afternoon and Friday nights were holy to him, but also – to a bigger part than he might have liked – because he had an impossible itch to see Merlin again and take him on his promise.

  
Way more fun activity down here? No matter what Merlin would say, that was flirting.

  
Arthur still wasn't so sure if he really liked it or not, but he dared to find out by spending more time with Merlin. (Which seemed to be unavoidable, given the circumstances.)

  
Unfortunately, Merlin usually took late shifts after a day spent in the lab with his pharmaceutics, so when Arthur arrived at Gaius library at nine o'clock, he felt the sudden emptiness of the hall of books with a pang as he started to realise he wouldn't see Merlin this day, and then not for two days, because he wouldn't have to work at the weekend, and there was no way he was going to show up to an unpaid work on a holiday just because of some bloke.

  
Besides, his father would probably crack up if he learned about his son's new found eagerness of a job he would have described as “dull” at best.

So he fought his time through five hours of cataloguing books in a really simple data base at the computer (yep, it was a computer, not a typewriter!) because Gaius declared he was “too old for this newly modern technique-rubbish”.

  
Arthur smirked a bit to himself and added 'The “Computer” as well, you'd make a great pair!' mentally.

  
Gaius wasn't so bad after all. As far as Arthur could acknowledge, he knew a whole lot of... well, everything and a witty remark to even more. Arthur laughed a lot, but couldn't help to constantly check the clock and wait for the five hours to pass.

  
In addition he felt as if he was late the whole time due to the lack of light in the “Mazy Catacombs of bizarrely ordered Books of Dodgeability”.  
Yes, he couldn't stop of thinking of new names for the library (which lacked a name. For real. Which public organisation hadn't got a name these days? Was this even legal? How were they listed?) to distract him.  
(And because he thought “Gaius' library” sounded insufferably lame.)

Just in time on two o'clock Arthur rose to his feet, declared he had to attend to class and practically flee from the bureau - or room with desks. Or whatever. - just to literally run right into Merlin at the bottom of the stairs.

  
“Ugh”, muffled Merlin from where his face was squished against Arthur's armpit/chest, it was not really possible to tell, which happened in course of Arthur all but catching him. He freed himself from Arthur's tender grip under his arms and rearranged his nose.

  
“Ow. Repayment for yesterday?”

  
Arthur looked at him with a funny expression.

  
“Uh, sorry for that. And no, no repayment, what's there to repay?”

  
Merlin snickered.

  
“Yeah yeah, if you say so... You heading out?”

  
Arthur nodded.

  
“Yeah, seems so.”

  
Merlin shrugged in response.

  
“Well, that's a pity, but I'm sure you'll return on Monday, won't you?” and looked at him with his most challenging grin.

  
No one could ever tell Arthur again that wasn't flirting. Though you could never be sure. He was a bloke after all.

  
“To my greatest pleasure!”, he declared formally and indicated a bow.

  
Merlin chuckled, clapped him on the shoulder and said: “Yeah, whatever mate. See ya."

  
And out of the moment, they just hugged and it was not a whit awkward. It was borderline creepy how well they got along.

* * *

What is a weekend without booze?

  
Right, no weekend at all. Or at least so was Arthur's opinion.

  
He either spent them studying or partying, and after a week full of running around, collecting and sorting books, a quite painful nearly concussion, in addition to the constant needed attending on courses this near to the final exams, he wouldn't have the world come between him and his favourite pub.

  
Where he met his mates and fellow students, and Gwen the bar lady he had always had a flimsy crush on, and rambled about his father, and played darts and table football and drank as much ale and beer as he pleased, because it was weekend after all.

  
And when he crawled into bed on Sunday evening, more tired than hungover, he knew he never looked forward to getting up on a Monday with more anticipation.

In order not to straight away miss Merlin this time again, he didn't show up before 5 o'clock, the latest moment possible, just to be sure to not miss Merlin again.

  
“I thought you wouldn't show up any more.”, Gaius commented with a risen eyebrow as usual, when Merlin jumped up and down around the corner as if he was listening to some music in his head.

  
Arthur smiled at the thought, and also because he was pleased to see Merlin again, when Merlin suddenly noticed him and stop in the middle of a jump.

“Whoops. Thought you'd already been here.”, he managed fairly without blushing and an apologetic smile again, before he went to nudge Arthur slightly in the shoulder.

  
“Nope. Here I go.”

  
Fortunately, it didn't even occurred to Gaius this time to give him any “office work” and he sent him right away stacking books with Merlin, to leave the sorting and labeling work to him instead.

  
“I'll arrange them on the book cart, and you come pick them up, when you're ready ordering yours. So then, off you go.”

  
He made a hand movement similar to the one you shoo flies away with, and the boys both grabbed a book cart and Merlin headed right to the left.

  
“Come this way.”, he proposed and lead Arthur further and further down endless aisles, deeper into the heart of the library.

  
“Why are we going this way? Over there seemed a lot of more space to stack this books.”

  
Arthur figured relatively fast that it totally didn't matter where you put the books after Merlin's system, because Merlin obviously didn't want any book to be found.  
Merlin looked over his shoulder and impishly grinned at Arthur.

  
“Oh, you'll see.”

  
Much to Arthur's discomfort, this managed to frighten him, but nevertheless he wouldn't stop following Merlin, because he felt save in his presence, somehow. And yes, when he thought about it, this made absolutely no sense.

  
Soon they arrived in a somewhat broader alley between the aisles, and Merlin said:  
“You know how to sort them? Then hurry!”, and began to store the books of his cart according to his peculiar system.

  
Arthur tried to keep up with his psyched pace, but found himself utterly incapable of moving this fast and flicking through the books without accidentally pulling out the pages. Which lead to Merlin being finished with his cart in a blink of an eye, while Arthur still tried not to drop any books when he took more than two for once.  
Merlin looked at him funnily but denied himself a comment and came to help Arthur with his piles.

  
“I feel like I'm completely incapable of doing this.”, Arthur admitted as he dropped yet another three books and Merlin quickly went to fetch them.

  
“Don't bother”, Merlin said as he handed him back the books, “it's highly unlikely that you'll ever have to do this again in your entire. Except if you'd like to arrange yourself a private library, that is.”

  
“Yes, well, if the idea will ever cross my mind, I might as well hire you.”, he chuckled back.

  
“Hey! Do you really think I'd like to do this my whole life?”

  
“Uhm... What did you study again? This pharmaceutics stuff, right? Well, then, probably not. But you can never know if you will find a job later on, so we should perhaps stay in contact, just to make sure your future is in safe hands.”

  
“So yours are 'safe hands' then? By the way, thank you for bringing back my future anxiety, it's not like I finally got rid of them...”, he rolled his eyes.

  
“Oh, I'm sorry. But really? Future anxiety? Why?”

  
Merlin cocked his eyebrow, as if to say “Well, how would you know?”, and Arthur immediately felt a bit unsettled about asking this question, because what ever it was

Merlin would be about to say, it would surely contain:  
“Well, not as if any of this could be familiar to you, but...”, because it always did.

  
Nobody ever took him for serious when talking about personal future. Sometimes it really sucked having a rich daddy and friends who may not envied you, but took this a lot more for granted than you did.

  
“My father died a few years ago, and my mother had her first what we thought was a heart attack, but turned out to be 'Broken-Heart-Syndrome'”, he waited a moment to check if Arthur was familiar with the term, “and they cured her, but then I left for uni, and she had the second, and since then she's really weak and needs to stay in the hospital, which all in all costs a pretty penny so I was really lucky to get in a scholarship programme last year, but you know, I can only afford a pretty small room with not much more than a mattress, really, so I'm kinda living down here. It's warm, I can study and sometimes even someone like you drops in and requires a book only I'm able to find, because who else would?”, he laughed a bit, “and I even earn a little money to buy something like food or clothes. But well, it's not...”

  
Here we go., thought Arthur, Go on. Say it. „not as any of this would be familiar to you.“ Yeah, been there, done that, of course you think I couldn't care for you.

  
He was so occupied in his train of thoughts, that he almost missed Merlin finishing the sentence with:  
“it's not all as bad as it might have sounded just now, I really didn't want to bother you with my issues or anything.”

  
Arthur immediately shook his head. “No, no, it's... it's fine. Well, thanks actually.”

  
“Thanks?”

  
“Yeah, people usually don't tell me about their problems because they believe me to be incapable of empathising with them. I'm rather used to it by now.”

  
Merlin looked at him in disbelief.

  
“Really?”, he asked sceptically, “I thought people would come to you every day with all their matters, because, you know...”, he hum and hawed, then shrugged, “well, money?”

  
Arthur burst into fits of laughter.

  
“Yeah, of course, because I only got friends who take me to the cleaner! Really, Merlin, do I look that stupid?”

  
He giggled a bit more, than clapped him on the shoulder.

  
“But you know, everything is going to be fine, right? Because, at least, if I don't have a private librarian someday, I still have a... chemist around the corner?”

  
Merlin shook his head.

  
“You obviously have no idea about pharmaceutics, do you? Hey, I may be the one inventing the final remedy of HIV!”

  
They continued, working in a much better mood than before.

  
“Okay, look, we should rather hurry with the books”, Merlin added.

  
“Why?”

  
Arthur wrinkled his forehead.

  
“I mean, we've still got time and it isn't like anybody...”

  
“Nah, not because somebody needs them, but we need to have some time before Gaius' gets suspicious and goes investigating.”  
Arthur said nothing, but his expression speaks volumes.

  
“Just hurry.”

“And you really think this could work?”

  
Arthur is still eyeing Merlin and the book cart suspiciously.

  
“Yeah man, this is great fun!”

  
Merlin just proposed to have a seat in the book carts and start a race down the broader aisle in the library.  
“You know, to enjoy this thoroughly the memory of our last race is still far too lively in my head.”

  
Merlin just rolled his eyes.

  
“Yeah, because you're not a fear-nothing-type at all.”

  
Arthur flashes him a frustrated grin. This really shouldn't be as obvious as it is.

  
“I promise, this won't turn out like the last one and you'll be able to keep some off your precious brain cells.”

  
“Precious?”

  
“Well, they ought to be, as there certainly aren't many.”

  
Arthur just ruffles his hair in response to that and jumps on the other cart. “So. Who's made it to the end of the aisle first is the glorious winner of 'The Great Library Race of Utter Childishness, Volume II, this time with book carts' or what?”

  
“What did you just call that?”

  
“Nevermind.”

  
And they push themselves off the shelves until they gained enough speed to fully extend their arms and scream ridiculous things like “I'm the king of the world!” or “Whoopididoo, I can flyiayayay!”or just laugh their bums off.

  
“Merlin, how long is this aisle exactly?”, Arthur asked after some time.

  
“I don't know!”, exclaimed Merlin in delight, who looked a bit like Buddha on drugs, as he was apparently sitting in the lotus position on his track, clinging to his front as if on dear life, and his hair streaming ridiculously around his head due to the slip stream. Really, how could there be slip stream?

  
When the wall finally appeared in front of them, Arthur said: “Merlin, we need to stop this now. As much as I'd like to take you by your word, but I don't think we'd come out of this very well, given our recent speed.”

  
“Yup. Pretty much. But relax. Or do you think it's the first time I'm doing this?”

  
Merlin wore the expression of a five year old on Christmas Day who finally got the puppy he wished for so long, so Arthur couldn't just distrust him. Well, given the circumstances, it was too late now either way, but still.

He just managed to smile back at him, when they crashed into the wall.

  
Which Arthur would have expected to be rather unpleasant, hurtful and uncomfortable at the same, but was in fact fairly funny, given the fact that the wall was essentially a huge cushion, painted like a wall of stones. So the whole crash felt like flopping on the mattress after a hard day of work if anything, and it released a laughing outburst of Arthur, he felt like he hadn't had one since middle school, when one of his classmates had actually managed to ask his teacher all innocent what the term “to shag somebody” meant, if it was comparable to “shaking somebody”.

  
He laughed along with Merlin, until there were actually tears in his eyes and Merlin couldn't stop hiccuping.

  
When they finally looked at each other, it was one of those few moments you share with a person, when you feel like you've completely sorted them out and laughing along with them is just the expression of the inner bond you share deep along with your souls. That moment that makes you feel a bit more whole yourself, even if you didn't know there was missing a part.

  
“So, what'cha say? Come again?”

It should have been obvious to them, that they couldn't go on forever racing down the aisle, that sooner or later it would be quite suspicious if nobody would turn up at the office to collect some more books to sort in.

  
Nevertheless, both of them startled in surprise when Gaius suddenly stood in the middle of the aisle and eyed them with a more-than-deeply-not-amused-glare. They might have completely knocked him down, hadn't suddenly one wheel of Arthur's rack suddenly lost hold and made him crash to the ground – once again – his cart interfering with Merlin's, so that aforesaid came tumbling down splattered on top of him. It would have been hilarious, really, wouldn't they have felt so doomed by Gaius' glare or the increasing ache in their backs.

  
“You know, boys, as much as I appreciate you having fun, don't you think it's rather suspicious if none of you comes to me for ages? Or shall I say, are you aware that it is twenty past ten and we've officially closed?”

  
Arthur and Merlin glanced at each other, shrugged and then got up awkwardly.

  
“Uhm, ah...”

  
“Yeah, yeah, you weren't, I can see that. Now, off you go, and don't you dare coming back tomorrow and trying this stuff again. I won't tell your father this time, but I might as well do next time, is that understood?”

  
Though Arthur was maybe a little frightened by Gaius, he shot him a thankful smile – knowing, that his father knowing of foregoing occurrences would certainly be his doom – and then chased Merlin to the corkscrew stairs, longing to emerge the place.

  
They both came to stop in front of the entrance, supporting their hands on their knees to catch their breath, and then bursting into laughter again. Arthur should have felt stressed recently, with all the things currently buzzing around him, but he was fairly sure it was some time ago he had enjoyed himself so much.

  
He shot a quick glance at his watch and then at Merlin, who was leaning against the wall, still catching his breath.

  
“Fancy a drink?”

  
No response.

  
“Come on, it's still warm outside, and I'll pay if you want.”

  
Merlin bit his lip.

  
“Do I have a choice?”

  
“No. None at all.”

* * *

“I'm terribly certain this isn't a good idea at all.”, reckoned Merlin when Arthur dragged him to “this Pub I really like, you know, they have the best beer like ever”, clutching him to his side with an arm sprawled heavily across his shoulders.

  
“And why, little Merlin, should that be? You know, this certainly can't get any worse than my weekend already was.”

  
“Because you really have no idea how much of a lightweight I am.”

  
Arthur slapped his shoulder with a chuckle, which made Merlin's knees bow and therefore forced him to sit down in the next boot.  
“Then we shan't start to heavy, shall we?”, he hopped to the bar, got two beer and a huge grin from Gwen, the bar lady.

  
“Aww, where did you dig up this little cutiepie?”, she asked with a nod in Merlin's direction. As Arthur was to be ran across in her pub at least once a week they were well accustomed to each other now, which mostly showed in a lot of mutual banter and teasing.

  
“Library.”, Arthur smirked.

  
Gwen shot him a look.

  
“Really Arthur? Are you so needy already that you stroll around the library to pick up the little nerds hanging out there? Isn't this a bit much of a twat-move, honey?”  
Arthur rolled his eyes.

  
“It's nothing like that, really. This bloke got me concussed twice in less than a week and this is just me testing out how much he can take.”

  
Now it was Gwen's turn to smirk.

  
“Twice? Hmm, I didn't picture him like that, but...”

  
“Gwen. Please. Just the two beers. Thanks.”

  
“Of course, my lord. Have a nice evening.”

  
One had to admit, her smile was gorgeous. But maybe she was just always flailing a bit when Arthur turned up with one of his boyfriends. There's nothing wrong with girls squealing about queer couples, and Gwen loved Arthur for giving him so much to giggle about.

Merlin didn't promise to much: He really was a lightweight, and two hours later he lay practically sprawled across his booth, giggling about a story Arthur was telling about his tutor.

  
“Have you finished these?”, asked Gwen passing by their table, pointing at the small heap of shot glasses on the table.

  
“Yes, ma'am”, Merlin bawled, very much to his own confusion.

  
“Oh, honey, you really had a few too much, hadn't you?”, she said and tousled his hair, shooting a 'tut-tut' face at Arthur,

  
“Can I get you something else to make you happy?”

  
“Olives”, Merlin hiccuped.

  
“No, no way, no olives!”, insisted Arthur, who was pretty tiddly himself after the last round of Tequila,

  
“The olives she serves are straight from hell! Believe me, they're more likely to turn your stomach inside out than another round of shots would!”

  
Merlin just giggled a bit more, so Gwen had to stop him from falling of the booth.

  
“But your Guacamole is the best in town.”, Arthur added, too smooth the slightly acidulous expression on Gwen's face.

  
“Guacamole it shall be, then.”

  
Merlin looked after her when she turned away and set his expression then straight to Arthur's.

  
“She's a nice woman. A very nice woman. Not many women are that nice, you know?”

  
Arthur started to wonder where this would lead.

  
“But she's soo nice. Look, she's doing Guacamole, just for us. Isn't that nice? I like nice people. It's like, you want to cuddle them until they shove you away because they're overcuddled. That's not nice, but they are still nice. Know what I mean?”

  
Arthur nodded absentmindedly, he knew Merlin was just babbling, and whatever he'd say, Merlin would have forgotten it in the morning hours any way, so he instead focused on Merlin's lips as he spoke.

  
It was weird, how he could see the blood puckering in them, wild and vivid, when Merlin accidentally bit his lip as his tongue began to slur. Merlin had very nice, full-shaped lips. Oh yes, they were nice. But they didn't make Arthur want to cuddle them 'til they were overcuddled, because I don't know if you tried, but that's a bit difficult with lips; no, they actually made Arthur really much want to re-enact the progression of Merlin's tongue flipping out to moisture his lips, just with his own.

  
He noticed that he leant over the table, and that Merlin's face was only inches from his, and he thought  
 _Well, fuck, this is weird, I barely know this guy, but isn't he cute? Isn't he like the kindest person I've ever met? Wouldn't it be nice to kiss him? Wouldn't it be sweet?_ And then, very quickly T _his is probably one of the most stupid ideas I've had in a long time. He's going on about Gwen for very long now, isn't he?_ , when Merlin finished his sentence with:

  
“It's like... really weird, because I actually don't know you at all, but you know, I think I can tell, you're also very, very nice. You may not see it yourself, but you are.”

  
The last words slurred pretty much around the edges, and Merlin was clamming to an empty bottle of beer, trying to focus his gaze on the label, as he said them, but they still seeped to Arthur's brain somehow, and he couldn't resist to return a:

  
“So you want to cuddle me 'til I'm overcuddled, yeah?”

  
Merlin slowly moved his stare Arthur's, looking as if he was progressing the thought of exactly doing so, when Gwen showed up with the Guacamole.  
“Sorry to interrupt, Guys, but here's your favourite dip with some carrot-sticks, so you don't have to excruciatingly die from scurvy. Thank me later.”

  
And with a final hair-tousle of Merlin's she was gone, Merlin slowly gazing after her again, as if he wondered where the sudden sensation on his scalp came from.  
Meanwhile Arthur managed to come to his senses again, picked up a carrot, dipped it deeply in Guacamole and held it under Merlin's nose.

  
“Open.”, he demanded.

  
Merlin did as he was told and stuck his tongue out. Arthur chuckled at the image and smeared Guacamole all over it, using the carrot as a brush, until Merlin eventually managed to catch it with his teeth.

Somewhere along the night, they made it to the point, where it would have been absolutely ridiculous to go home.

  
After the Guacamole, Merlin had somewhat sobered up, and Arthur had sighed a lot, because of course Gwaine would pick exactly this point in time to show up, and affectionately introduced himself to Merlin as “First-like-once-and-forever-mate-of-Arthur, but you can totally have him if you want”, then tried to flirt himself to a couple of free beers (Gwen would have non of it, she used to just slap him with he cloth and then giggle along), left Arthur and Merlin to a few moments of horrible awkwardness and then decided to passionately introduce Merlin to a few drinking games.

  
Which was a horrible idea no matter what, but as Arthur unintentionally got a bit protective, Merlin reminded him that he had said he wouldn't have a choice, and Gwaine insisted: “I don't care what you say, it's after 1am, and after 1am we're all friends.” the pact of doom was sealed.

  
Gwen kicked them out sooner or later, Merlin and Arthur got Gwaine a cab – really, it was Monday! - and then walked arm in arm into the sunrise, which sounds a lot more soppy than it actually was.

Before the city awoke, they stranded on a lonely fountain and decided to go for a catlick. Which of course lead to a water fight – boys will be boys, after all – and them being little sodding messes at the edge of the fountain.

  
“There's no way I could attend to class like this.”, Merlin sighed.

  
“You're telling me!”, Arthur laughed and shook his head, splashing water droplets in Merlin's direction.

  
“Okay, I've got a plan.”, he began,

  
“Fetch breakfast. Lots of coffee. Making it to the library without falling asleep. Somehow survive Gaius' slightly judging glares. Then class. Or letting somebody take notes for me. And then I'll sleep like log, curled up in my bed like a baby.”, Merlin proposed.

  
“Exactly.”, Arthur nodded, got up and lent Merlin his hand. “You coming, then?”

* * *

Arthur stopped in front of a Coffeeshop.

  
“Breakfast?”

  
“Yeah, sure, but 'round the corner is a small café I know the owner of, so we would get, you know, extra strong coffee and probably some scrambled egg extra, if you manage to look a bit more beaten.”

  
“More than I feel already?”

  
“Yeah, then she's going to think your another homeless person I picked up from the street and decided to feed through.”

  
“Another homeless person?”, Arthur coughed,

  
“How many do you bring there? Two a week?”

  
“I won't apologize for caring.”, Merlin sniffed.

  
“I didn't meant it as an affront. Sorry.”

  
They walked a few steps in silence.

  
“I don't bring two a week. Maybe one a month. But only if Freya's in a good mood.”

  
Arthur chuckled.

  
“And is she in a good mood?”

  
“Are you planning to obtain your breakfast by fraud?”

  
“The look you just gave me did all his credit to Gaius.”

  
Arthur put on a sulking face and Merlin held open an inconspicuous door.

  
Arthur stepped in and said: “Is every place where one can find you so well hidden?”

  
“Probably. If one doesn't know where to look for.”

  
“So where does one have to look?”

  
“Every second place where you wouldn't expect me I'm sure to be found.”

  
“This conversation is getting far too high and hypothetical for my increasing headache.”

  
“Okay, try and look really tired.”, Merlin adamant as they approached the counter.

  
“No need to try.”

  
Merlin greeted the woman at the counter like an old friend.

  
Which they probably where, or at least sharing a considerably equal relationship Arthur had with Gwen. Arthur tuned out a bit when Merlin chattered with the woman – really, how could he stand there looking like the rising sun if mere hours ago he was about to drop unconscious if not for some (truly great) Guacamole? - and only got back into the conversation when the woman patted his cheek and said:

  
“Oh, poor boy. I make you some scrambled eggs with much bacon, my lovelies.”

  
Arthur nodded and made a face like a kicked puppy. Merlin bit his lip to refuse laughing and quickly tucked at his sleeve to lead them to a seat.

  
“One question”, Arthur said as they sat down. Merlin lifted an eyebrow in anticipation.

  
“No, two questions, actually.”

  
“Go on then.”

  
“Okay, uh, are you friends with everybody?”

  
Merlin laughed at this.

  
“No, really, how do you do this? Everybody likes you. You haven't met a single person since I know you that hasn't tried to pinch your cheek. And you haven't even got cheeks!”

  
“I have cheeks!”

  
“No, you haven't.”

  
“Yes, I do! Look!”

  
Merlin pumped air in his chops in attempt to look like a blowfish.

  
Arthur suppressed a chuckle and demanded: “Stick to the topic!”

  
“I don't know, man”, Merlin admitted, “People just like me. Is it that unusual?”

  
Arthur bit his lip. It probably wasn't, some people just were destined to be everybody's darling, although he had to admit, it made him slightly jealous. He also wanted to possess the easiness Merlin had in every of his conversations.

  
For him it was either people knowing who he was and therefore treating him with a proper portion of respect, or they didn't know who he was and then seemed to automatically think poorly of him as the arrogant posh boy who didn't learned how to respect people.

  
Which simply wasn't true, but make that plain to a stranger.

  
Merlin seemed to be an exception though. Even with all his recent mates there had been a phase of initial sniffing at each other, when nobody really knew what to expect from the other and therefore kept everybody at bay. And there seemed to be basically nothing he really shared with Merlin and still their relation had an odd intensity from the beginning. Hell, he knew Merlin for less than a week and was just sitting face to face with him in a small cuddly café he normally wouldn't even have thought of entering after pulling an all-nighter (which he admittedly hadn't done for a long time now) and though all this intensity in a rush should feel more then strange, funnily enough he felt like there was no other place in the world right now for him, not even a parallel universe where he shouldn't sit there glazing in Merlin's beaming blue eyes over a steaming mug of coffee.

  
“And?”, Merlin asked after taking a sip.

  
Arthur shook his head as if to get rid of all the thoughts.

  
“W-what?”, he stammered.

  
“Question number two?”

  
By Merlin's tone Arthur felt a bit like a retard.

  
“Uhh, yes. How do you manage to look so well-recovered after a night like this? I mean, I've probably still got enough alcohol in my veins to not feel like an complete and utter pool of shite, but, you know, I can feel the headache coming. And this is like... uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable.”

  
What happened to my tongue?, thought Arthur, I'm normally not one for amnesic aphasias!

  
Merlin set down his mug.

  
“Uhm, I don't know. Increased blood flow? I don't know. But I know what to do against your headache.”

  
“Ohh, don't come with some lumpy massage techniques! This coffee will do and I'm fine.”, Arthur struggled immediately.

  
“If you say so. But I really had no intention of touching your scalp-”

  
“What a pity.”

  
“-but offering you one of the best painkillers we've got from the pharma-lab I happen to have the key to.”

  
He waggled a little silver object through the air. Arthur's eyes got big like saucers.

  
“You. Are. Kidding. Me.”

  
“Nope.”

  
“But how come this tray isn't completely empty by now, if the profs trust every of their student as much as to give them their keys!”

  
Merlin raised an eyebrow once more.

  
“You know that, in fact, your question implies the answer, don't you?”

  
Arthur shot him a cheesed off gaze.

  
“Well, my tutor gives her keys to a few students to give them the ability to experiment or do stuff outside of the hours of opening. We're like... three to five people. And, sorry to say that, but our drinking habits don't match yours in the least.”

  
Arthur snickered.

  
“So you're one of those privileged little bastards everybody else in the course is grown to hate?”

  
“What?”, said Merlin irritated.

  
“Don't you worry”, Arthur smugly sipped his coffee, “relieves me for question one.”

After they snook in and out of the lab with their prey, Merlin handed Arthur one of the pills and said: “Okay, but listen, they're like, brand new and not really tested on human beings, so... if you start to see strange things or something... Just tell me okay?”

  
“You're giving me an untested medical product?”

  
“Would you want the mice to suffer to it instead or what?”

  
“Don't they have to anyway?”

  
“Yeah, but that's not the point. Now, gulp it already, I promise, it will at least help with the headache.”

  
Arthur muttered something that sounded very close to: “Yeah, that's a side-effect of most drugs.” but swallowed the pill nevertheless.

  
“Good boy.”, Merlin said and rested his hand on Arthur's shoulder.

  
“But you are aware that I am, in fact, no dog?”, asked Arthur when Merlin padded a bit.

  
“Oh, are you?”

  
“Just you wait!”

  
And then he chased Merlin down the street, because with this amazing painkillers, he felt light-headed and fuzzy once again, not like on a trip, but definitely as gorgeous as he used to when he accomplished a goal or made someone proud. It was a nice feeling. But Arthur wasn't sure if it came from the pill.

  
But for what other reason should his heart start pounding like a madman when he saw Merlin standing against the wall, panting, after he thoroughly ruffled his hair?

That was pretty weird. Or he was just oblivious to something obvious. Again.

  
Or like, you know, every time. Every time that mattered.

* * *

“There are still loads of books that have to be sorted, as we weren't really productive yesterday.”,

  
Merlin said after a quick check of the inventory and handed Arthur a huge stack with a gesture towards the book carts.

  
As he had promised, Gaius hadn't turned up yet, so they had the whole quiet library to themselves again. Though Arthur didn't thought of it as an eerily silence any more, but rather as a soothing, sedative one.

  
“Uah.”, blurted Arthur out, as he tried to balance the books towards the cart. Merlin snickered.

  
“It really looks like you haven't worked with your hands at all. Or with books, depends.”

  
“Hey!”, Arthur turned around, glowering,

  
“I have! Both, to be precise, I'm just not... used to it. When you say it sounds like I'm not capable of simply arranging some bloody books.”

  
“Well, I'd give it a thought then.”, Merlin shrugged and then hid behind a cart because he could sense another ruffle-attack of Arthur's again.

  
Who would have gladly done so if not inhibited by several carts and the fact, that all the books he had just set on the cart tumbled down the floor in one rush. Merlin coughed silently and grinned cheekily at Arthur from beneath the cart.

  
Arthur pointed with his finger at him, sucked in a breath as if to say something and then stopped in the middle.

  
“If...”, he threw a scrutiny at the books, “If I didn't know better, I'd say this is all your fault.”

  
Merlin nodded slowly.

  
“You may do so. If it helps you through the day, I won't mock it.”

  
Arthur started another attempt to crawl over to Merlin, when his feet got entangled in a cable on the floor that lead to the “computer”.

  
“Huh”, was all Arthur could really manage, when he catch himself on the next book cart. Everything audible from Merlin's direction was a muffled laugh, but he decided to finally let it go. Luck didn't seem to be on his side today.

  
“I could've sworn there was no cable just a minute ago.”

  
Merlin finally wound the coast to be clear and rose to his feet.

  
Once again he shrugged an said: “Maybe it wasn't your destiny to ruffle my hair more than once a day.”

  
Arthur's “Are-you-kidding-me”-face after that was priceless.

  
“Well, come on. Time to get the place running.”

Arthur was used to weird or even mysterious incidences. Used-in-a-way-probably-everyone-is to.

  
Or at least to this kind of incidences you wrinkle a brow about, then shrug it off and then attend to something else. And it would have all been fine – if those incidences hadn't mysteriously increased during his first weeks in the library.

  
From time to time, books disappeared from places he'd been dead certain he had left them, sometimes even whole shelves and the same applied to Merlin. He started to think he was slowly getting nuts this near to the water level of the Thames.

  
Especially because he seemed to develop a certain clumsiness that caused him to trip over more than usual, to drop books to the worst of times or just bump into shelves whenever possible.

  
It was completely unaccountable. He was a footballer, dammit. He hadn't been clumsy since he'd grown out of his limbs, and that had been more than 10 years ago!

  
He was about to blame it on the lack of light or air or whatever was lacking this “low down under”, but when he talked to Merlin about it – to whom he was far too fond of after their night out (they kept playing silly games down the aisles, bickered like an old married couple and had been well-introduced to all of their respective friends in the meantime) – the former had just shrugged it of and said: “I don't know what's lacking down here, but I also don't know what's lacking with you so...” and because ruffling his hair started to get boring, he withdrew himself to think of a new way to torture Merlin.

He still hadn't found one when it happened:

  
Arthur was slowly working himself through his pile of books – it was way beyond him how Merlin managed to finish the sorting in such a short time – and tried to adjust a book just out of arm length, when he climbed a little on the shelf to reach the gap, as some of the books slackened from their cases and caused a downright landslide of books, which would have most positively caused yet another concussion, if not a bit more.

So Arthur ducked away his head and clung to the shelf, frightened of the movement above his head, when he saw Merlin standing in the crossing aisle, with an outstretched arm, and flashing eyes. Arthur blinked a few times, then the “bookslide” was over and he jumped off the shelf, still with buckling feet.

  
“Are you okay?”, Merlin asked apprehensively.

  
Arthur blinked at him in irritation.

  
“What was... what was that?”, he managed finally.

  
“Apparently some books slackened as you tried to reach them and caused a chain-reaction. Can be pretty dangerous if you ask me.”, Merlin stated with pursed lips, “But you're fine, yeah?”

  
Arthur shook his head, then nodded, then shook his head again.

  
“No, I mean... What was that?”, he gestured wildly around the books and Merlin.

  
“What was what?” Merlin asked, trying to stay oblivious, but it was obvious that he tried to hide something.

  
“This thing you, I mean...”, Arthur shook his head again, puzzled, he had no idea what he wanted to say, to be honest,

  
“I know it sounds nuts, and I don't know, I am more probably than not by now, but you just stood there, and these books came raining down, and then you've done something with your hand, and, come one, not a single page touched me, and I know you will say I'm hallucinating or something, but then don't you dare looking at me like I just walked in on you on something or whatnot, I know, I know, this makes completely no sense and I can't even...”, he noticed he was rambling,

  
“It was like... like you had magic or something.”

  
“I don't have magic.”, Merlin claimed. Arthur rose a brow. He would have none of it.

  
“Well, some may say so, but to be precise, it's really nothing like it, it's not like I could conjure a puppy out of thin air, I'm not Harry Potter, I'm not even like Harry Potter at all, it's just... You wouldn't believe me anyway.”

  
Arthur pursed his lips.

  
“No matter what you say, it can all only just lead to me being not the only lunatic down here, so I beg you to go on.”

  
“Uhm, okay, I... I know this sounds insane, this is insane and... and nobody really knows about it, not even my mother, at least not any more, but Gaius does, he's... he's the one who first told me what it is and... well, what I am, if you say so.”

  
Merlin breathed deeply.

  
“I'm sorry if you want to get rid of me as fast as possible as soon as you know this, but you wanted to know, and I would've never done anything to slip this, or to tell you about it or, or... anything, really, I just... This books could've harmed you. Like in, dangerously harmed you, a concussion would've been the pettiest evil, a cranial fracture was more likely and I couldn't let you die, could I? So...”

  
Arthur sighed.

  
“Merlin. This makes no sense. And not because of what you've done, but because you're missing the point. So, please, tell me? What is it? How come these books just dropped next to me and left me un-concussed and surprisingly well next to you?”

  
“I'm telekinetic.”, said Merlin and gazed at the ceiling, clearly avoiding Arthur's stare.

  
Arthur blinked. And blinked again.

  
“You're... you're... what?”

  
Merlin dare a small look at him, then went on talking to spot behind Arthur's right ear.

  
“Well, uh, I am telekinetic. It is, ah, a bit difficult to understand but... well, technically it only means I'm able to... move things. With my mind. They also call it para-psychologic strength. It's... pretty much uncharted ground.”

He attempted a chuckle, failed miserably and scratched the back of his head.

  
Arthur blinked a few times more.

  
“Okay, let me get this straight: You... have the ability to move things without touching them.”

  
Merlin nodded.

  
“Yep.”

  
“Without seeing them?”

  
“Pretty much, yep. Makes it harder, but it's possible.”

  
“Prove it.”

  
Arthur dared him. Merlin sighed and as if by magic, all the recently dropped books began adjusting themselves back in the shelf.

  
Arthur laughed out loud.

  
“Get out of here!”, he rejoiced, “That's... that's amazing! Can you do anything else?”

  
Merlin's attention was again somewhere near his shoes.

  
“I, uhm, can... probably change the... condition of things, like... I did with the wall the other day, you know, the one we crashed against. And... and I think I can release pain or something. At least I tried it at you a few times and I guess it worked.”

  
He finally dared to look straight at Arthur. Arthur wasn't shocked or anything, he was still coping with what he had just seen, and didn't know if it were just his eyes, or if he was going slowly insane, or whatever, but for now he decided to just stick with it.

  
“You... tried it on me?”

  
“Yeah, you know, your concussion the other day, and the thing with the “super painkillers”... By the way, I think I overdid it a bit at that point, so I decided to avoid doing it again, which is why... I'm standing here now. Telling you that I'm a weirdo who's moving things around with his head. And I'm really sorry.”

  
Arthur laughed, in release and confusion, and didn't really know what to say.

  
“Merlin, mate, what for?”

  
Merlin rose his brows.

  
“I mean, it's not like you can be blamed for... being born like this, can you? It's just... how it's supposed be isn't it? Moreover, you just saved my life and I should be damn thankful for that.”

  
He hugged Merlin, who finally managed a smile. A bit to astute for his tastes, but a smile at least.

  
“I... wasn't exactly apologising for that”, Merlin admitted eventually when Arthur let him go.

  
Now it was Arthur's turn to arch his brows.

  
“So? What else?”

  
Merlin whipped his head from side to side and tried to look innocent.

  
It took Arthur a while to count two and two together, but when realisation hit him he cried: “Merlin, are you telling me it was you who... moved away my books. Moved my shelves. And made me bump into them everyday at least twice.”

  
“Maybe?”

  
“Oh, you just wait!”

  
And with that, probably the 3rd Great Library Race of Utter Dodgyness began. Or was it the fourth? It got difficult to count. And none of them knew what Arthur was chasing Merlin for anyway.

  
There was not really a point, when it was completely up to Merlin where the route lead, or if there was suddenly a shelf appearing in front of Arthur... Completely randomly, of course.

Merlin had practically begged him not to tell anybody, not even his closest friends whatsoever, because Merlin lived in constant fear of too much attention.

  
(“You know, I really don't want the BBC knocking on my door one day, trying to talk me into participating in some crap Reality-Show, or even worse, some military forces that want me to help them explode other people brains. Don't you laugh, have you ever read “The rare gift” by Andreas Eschbach? It's bloody nuts, okay?”)  
So Arthur just shrugged it of with a laugh, punched Merlin's shoulder slightly – because he figured, this would be a great and less messy alternative to the frequent hairruffling - plus he didn't really want to hurt Merlin – and let the topic be.

They had only required three weeks to function like clockwork as a pair:

  
Merlin would usually start work right after his lectures, because he was actually getting money for the job and tried to work as much as possible, and a few hours later Arthur would drop in with their take-away.

  
Then they'd indulge in a china-food-feast on top of a shelf they'd lifted two or three boards off and stuffed it with pillows, before Arthur made his presence known at Gaius who gave him something to do.

  
(Which mostly contained computer work, as Arthur was the only one of them who knew how to half decently handle such a thing.)

  
Arthur used his position as the lunch delivery guy to recover Merlin's tastes and secretly stuff them in categories:

  
For example, Merlin loved spring rolls (very good) but always took real soy sauce over sweet and sour (which was pretty insane.)

  
Merlin instead used his position to get a free lunch almost daily, because he naturally offered to pay, but Arthur would have none of it.

  
Besides, Merlin brought him the perfect coffee every Friday just in time to fight the last exhaustion wave of the day: Two espresso shots with full-fat milk, two sugars, caramel syrup and a little walnut cookie. Not that Arthur would ever admit he'd had such preferences, coffee shops were pretty girly, weren't they, and why should he even have preferences, it was just coffee, okay? Nothing to be a girl about.

  
But nevertheless his eyes lit up with joy when Merlin handed him a Styrofoam cup every Friday and then placed a tiny walnut cookie on top of it. Whereupon Arthur had asked him, if his “special abilities” also included reading minds – and maybe got a bit pale around the nose – and Merlin just said: “Not as far as I know, unfortunately. Never tried, though.”, and snickered a bit,

  
“But one doesn't have to be a mentalist to see you always order the same on your bills from Starbuck's.”

  
“Oh, have you watched to much 'Sherlock' again, haven't you?”

  
Arthur decided it was time for a casual arm punch, but carefully, so Merlin wouldn't splutter his coffee. Maybe he just looked for an excuse to touch Merlin, one could never know.

  
“Couldn't help it, I only receive BBC on my little telly.”

  
“Just because you live at the only spot in London that could easily compete with the place also known as 'the end of the common world as we know it'.”, muttered Arthur.

\---

“How do you acquit yourself, son?”

  
When Uther decided to check up on him on the phone the first time, Arthur's 'work experience' was nearly finished and he wondered whether it would've made a difference if he hadn't shown up at 'Gaius secret spot for long forgotten books' at all. To his father ostensibly not.  
But to him? How would he'd spent the past weeks without Merlin, for example?

  
The common routine, sleep-eat-study, a footie match here, one or another bender, maybe the occasional one night stand, but his life would've passed meaninglessly as always, the final exams in sight, yes, but there was nothing in it, nothing he'd have said was important.

  
Now, there was Merlin, tiny, clumsy, adorable, cheeky Merlin, who made him purposefully drop his books to look less clumsy, who stole his last spring roll and yelped endearingly when he tried to escape him, who had shown him new places in a town he thought he'd knew like the back of his hand, who actually understood that live wasn't easy and didn't bother to pretend he was anything special at all, because he was so special, there was no need to pretend that.

  
Just that Merlin also never bothered to realise that. Which made him first and foremost even more precious in Arthur's eyes, but also so incredibly vulnerable at once, that Arthur actually tinkered with the idea to never leave the library, to protect Merlin from all the catastrophes he could face down there, all the chaos and all the stress, never mind the fact that Merlin was probably much more able to cope with them than Arthur ever could be.

  
And just as he realised that, his gaze fell on the calendar which unmistakably told him that his forced 'work experience' would be over in three days, and that there was nothing he could do about it, because he had known all along he would eventually have to finish it, as he had to finish all, his studies, his exams, his whole bohemian life attitude, in order to start working I his father's company, and sure, there were things he could take along, but how much space could there be for an ambitious pharmaceutics major, who read nerdy books and cared much to much for everybody he'd just met, but knew as much about economy as a cow about laying eggs?

  
There were always gonna be things, and people, and circumstances he would have to give up once he graduated, once he could fully be declared as grown-up, and he knew it, he knew it all along but right in this moment, with his father on the line waiting for him to say something, it hit him like a wall of bricks, that there were loads of things he gladly gave up, left behind and never looked back, but that Merlin, though he knew him for hardly a month, wasn't going to be one of it, that there'd always have to be a small place in his life marked as 'Merlin', come what may.

  
“Bloody brilliant if you ask me”, Arthur forced a smile on his sudden frozen face, though he knew his father wasn't able to see him, “but I'm not quite sure if Gaius goes along with that description.”

  
He heard his father laughing at the other end of the line.

  
“Oh, Arthur, what have you perpetrated now?”

  
If only I knew, father, if only I knew... Arthur thought sadly and swallowed.

  
“It isn't going to be that bad, I know it, because you're my son, and you never disappointed me, you know that, do you?”

  
Arthur nodded slowly, then remembered that his father couldn't see him and added a quick: “Yes, yes, yeah, thank you.”

  
On another day this sentence would've meant the world to him, would've made him proud of himself and he would've bean unbearable for at least a week, but Arthur still stood there, numb like a corpse and thought _Only three days left with Merlin, how do I keep him after that, is it hard to stay in touch, how can I do that, have I ever done that, but I need to do that, we should both, really, we have to stay in touch, he will see that, too, I mean, he has to see that, isn't obvious, but if he doesn't, no he can't, but really like, I should tell him, but how can I tell him, I mean, would he miss me, 'cause I will miss him, and I have to tell him, somehow, but there are really only three days left..._ in an infinite loop.

Arthur was pretty broody all Monday, and when he entered the library with Merlin's favourite Chop Suey, he thought he might get clobbered over the head with the gloom emanating from the silence of the books.

  
He had absolutely no idea how to handle Merlin. Pretend to be happy as always, as he probably should be? Or admit that he would miss everything down here? Miss him?

  
He nearly turned on his heels and ran away, if Merlin wouldn't have jumped on his back from a shelf near-by and exclaimed: “Hiyah! We're the pirates of the zoology section and we've victoriously conquered your boat! Now give us all your food and we might let you live, mwahaha.”

  
Arthur just chuckled.

  
“Ouh, Merlin is the air down here affecting your brain that bad that you started to refer to yourself in plural? Or is it just the hypoglycaemia?”

  
“Hungerrrrr”, cooed Merlin in his ear, which made Arthur shiver and snicker at the same time, so he decided to potentially ask his doctor about this and give Merlin a piggy back lift to their shelf.

  
“Your a pretty shitty pirate, you know that?”, he asked as he dropped Merlin on a pillow.

  
“No, I'm badass.”

  
“You conquered a ship without asking for gold? You're besmirching the glory of all the honourable buccaneers out there!”

  
“But I got what I wanted, didn't I?”

  
“Pff.”

  
Arthur urged Merlin to move aside and then handed him his take away container. And just with that, the whole question on how to behave vanished into thin air. There wasn't really anything to ponder about, because Arthur decided that Merlin should stay in his life, ergo Merlin would stay in his life. Period. In the bottom line the smaller aspects of closeness, frequency or deepness only mattered if you let them. And Arthur had decided long ago to never let the random things matter.

“So what do you want to do on your second to last day then?”, Merlin asked the day after, fiercely sucking his last noodles in his mouth.

  
Arthur, having finished his noodles ages ago, shot him the crooked-brow-gaze they now exchanged like an own language, being able to read a thousand words in a half a degree of crookedness.

  
“Is there really anything to want to do down here, or am I right again and Gaius will just give me a task I have to stick to like... you surely remember, everyday?”

  
“Yeah, probably, but when exactly have you fulfilled your tasks properly?”, Arthur opened his mouth, when Merlin added, “When Gaius wasn't watching, of course.”

  
Arthur inhaled.

  
“Uhm.”

  
When Gaius wasn't watching it was either them, playing silly games between the shelves like children, planning stupid pranks on their friends or Arthur begging Merlin to show him his “Paranormal Activity” stuff. (Which mostly ended in Merlin slapping Arthur over the head, claiming it was “parapsychological”, not “paranormal” but then sorting the books without raising a finger regardless.

  
“See.”

  
Merlin said, clapped him on the shoulder, and Arthur could only watch his china box emerging from his grip and flying over to the next bin. Pretty damn useful in domestic duties like cleaning the bin, Arthur mentally added to his 'Why-Merlin-is-the-best-friend-EVER”-list. Not that it would matter. The bin thing.  
Because Merlin wouldn't drop his rubbish, would he? Unless they'd live together of course, but why...

  
Arthur abruptly stopped this trail of thoughts. Because the stupid thing was, he could only ever see positive things out of moving together with Merlin, and this was awkward, because it never worked out with any of his past flatmates, independent of them being his partner or just a roomie, there was always stress and fight, and ever would be, and that was probably the end of it.

  
“As you've seem to have lost your ability to form thoughts to sentences in the meantime, also known as inexplicable speechlessness – nice word by the way, speechlessness – I'll go to Gaius and organize us some books and you just...”, he looked around, as if meanwhile there was actually something to do for Arthur, “you... prepare the ladders.”

  
And with a wink he was gone.

  
'Prepare the ladders' might have caused utter confusion in anybody else, but to Arthur it was perfectly clear what Merlin had asked for when he bounced around the corner. Apparently he thought it was time for “The Great Library Race of utter Childishness” number... I lost count. It got a bit much lately. Just that this was their favourite discipline. Because in aisles that were long and broad enough you could easily arrange two travelling ladders opposite of each other and then move them forward by pressing your weight in the right direction.

  
Needless to say, Arthur brought it to perfection in this discipline and couldn't be beaten by Merlin, even when he allowed him to use his “abilities” instead of his weight. So he selfconfidently strode down the aisle, grabbed a ladder with each hand and pulled them towards the wall from which they'd start.

  
Just as usual, Merlin took his time, so Arthur decided to train on a few rounds extra and rolled down the aisle with passion a few times.

  
No one could have foreseen it, and undoubtedly no one had planned it, so it took Arthur totally by surprise, when one ladder's end lost track above the shelves and caused him to dangerously falter in the air at the end of the aisle and finally crash down towards the end. In reflex, he let go of the now tumbling ladder and spread his arms to catch his fall – just that he wasn't the only one to do it.

  
In the moment he let go, there was, how should it have been different, Merlin, right in the way, moving in his direction, also completely taken aback when Arthur fell down the ladder just to grab him by the shoulders and pull him down with him, flat on his back and then overturning a few times until he lay sprawled out underneath him, heartbeat pounding in his ears and the familiar weight that was Arthur straddling him on the floor.

  
“Flattening”, he muffled.

  
Arthur himself was overfed by adrenaline pulsing through his veins, so he couldn't help the panting, and was unable to notice that he somehow had managed to push himself only slightly up with his hands right next to Merlin's face.

  
Unable to notice how close he was, it had been such a rush, how could he have noticed, there was barely a part of their bodies not touching and now they lay there both panting, none of them saying a word, it was about to get awkward, but for nothing in the world he would've let go now, not in this moment, not when he just noticed that it had been exactly this what he'd waited the whole time for to do.

  
Not now that he had it, though he didn't even knew he was waiting for it.

  
“Was this your doing?”, Arthur finally managed, still out of breath, and made an uncoordinated gesture towards the half unhinged ladder. Merlin abruptly shook his head.

  
“How could I...”

  
All he said now was quiet, barely audible, you had to be as close as Arthur was to realise he was saying something at all, to feel the hot breath on his lips and see the Adam's apple bobbing up and down.

  
“Could've saved me though.”, Arthur grumbled.

  
Not that he'd have expected it, but it would have been nice.

  
Merlin hinted a shrug and whispered: “But then I wouldn't have got to lie underneath you, would I?”

  
There was much to much tension stirring in the air when Arthur met his eyes after this sentence, his whole gaze exposed and more vulnerable then ever. Arthur swallowed.

  
“What have you said?”, he croaked.

  
If this had been another one of Merlin's attempts to be cheeky, it was a pretty bad one.

  
“Nothing.”

  
It was more a breath than a whisper that Merlin managed, and still it felt like he carried his heart on his tongue, there for the world to see, but in this moment, underneath the pavement and far to much down, it was a special offer only for Arthur.  
He couldn't take to hold Merlin's gaze any more and fixed it on his lips instead, Merlin's sight following his, also swallowing.  
Merlin had wonderful lips, they were smooth and not a bit chapped like Arthur's probably were, and what is more they included a super-full bottom lip, like Arthur had noticed from the start, which Merlin now bit down gently, in nervous anticipation.  
Because even to Arthur it was obvious what he would do next.

  
Ever so slowly he eventually bent his neck to nip down at the spot Merlin's teeth had just released, pressing down his own full lips ever so softly, eliciting a small gasp from Merlin, and slowly closed his eyes.

  
He now supported his weight on his forearms to give Merlin the ability to raise his arms and stroke down his spine in one fluid, unhasty motion, causing goose bumbs and slight tremble all over his body.

  
He opened his eyes again to meet Merlin's stare again with dilated pupils, a little flushed and more adorable than should be possible for a man. He decided that it would have been unuseful to say something, so instead he just breathed heavily against Merlin's lips and smoothed a bit of Merlin's odd fringe out of the way.  
Then he held his arms in place as he turned to lie on his back, Merlin now topping him, both their heartbeats speeding like a Silvester firework.

  
He settled his grip on Merlin's hip and smiled reassuringly, so Merlin finally took his face in his hands and kissed him with a passion he hadn't considered possible. He closed his eyes and pulled Merlin closer – if this was even possible – when aforementioned began to place tiny, wet kisses on his bottom lip, gently suckling and biting a bit now and then, taking his time, until Arthur finally parted his lips a split, so it felt like Merlin downright sank into him, now being able to be consumed by Arthur as if he was the air he had to breathe to survive, as if he was the last drop offered a parching man.  
Arthur explored Merlin's mouth like a new landscape, slowly tracing the inner width of his palatine and then rubbing their tongues together, which caused them both to moan, as they felt their breath and scent mingling together around them, not ever wanting to part, clinging together, unable to let go.

  
They had to part for breath sooner or later, and it was unpleasant, as if something essential was missing in their lives, although they were in front of each other, able to eat each other with their stares.

  
“Hey”, Arthur whispered against Merlin's nose, “wanna keep in touch after my work experience?”

  
“Thought you never ask”, admitted Merlin and sealed Arthur's huge grin with his mouth, deciding only to part when in acute danger.

 

Epilogue

Which should come sooner than anticipated.

  
Gaius had known there was something going on between the boys since he'd first seen them.

  
The way Merlin persuaded Arthur to stay with barely more than his thoughts, the way Arthur looked at him, the way Merlin's smile got only ever so cheeky when Arthur was around, the way they sloshed in each others lives as if they were to jigsaw puzzle pieces meant to stick together.

  
Gaius may have been old and seen more than one presumably should have, but one had either bee blind or deaf or both to miss the tension between them.  
What Gaius wasn't assuming was a secret snogging session in his dear library.

  
So when he heard a loud moan behind the shelf, the first thought that crossed his mind was not: “Run, run, and never come back, it could get awkwardly uncomfortable in the next seconds for you.” but “Has something happened, have they injured themselves with books, what if they're concussed, could it be worse, oh, Uther is going to kill me, no, we don't have any insurance, have we?” and hurried around the corner – just to find to find to bodies tightly wrapped around each other on the floor. On the floor of his library, mark you.

  
So he cleared his throat to make himself known and immediately had all the awkward attention of two equally flushed faces with a tiny note of pink on their cheeks and well-coloured lips.

  
“Boys, I know you're going to miss each other, but if you don't mind, there's still work to be done.”

  
He let them untangle their limbs on their own, turned around and smirked to himself. Who would've thought what common work experience could be good for?


End file.
